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Media Channel Dot Org

Walter Cronkite wrote: “Mediachannel.org is undoubtably worth taking in.” A ringing endorsement from one of the mainstream media’s leading lights is also worth taking seriously. Mediachannel.org, established in 2000, is a site for those progressives who are concerned about the corporate media and the way in which our news is delivered to us. The site was founded by Danny Schecter and Rory O’Connor, two veterans of the world of journalism, who created the site to address the “political, cultural, and social impacts of the media.” The whole site is devoted to nothing but, featuring articles, both written in-house and links from other sites, that explore the latest media-related news for the discerning reader. The site also includes a daily blog by Schecter the News Dissector who pontificates on the latest happenings in the world. Schecter covers everything from the war coverage in Iraq to the media’s obsession with celebrity news and generously features links to other writers and stories covering a variety of topics of the day. A topic he has been narrowed his laser-sharp focus on recently is the economy and the recent collapse of the hedge funds due to corporate corrruption on Wall Street. Schecter has also directed a number of documentaries on the subjects that make important viewing. A great source for those viewers who are tired of being spoonfed a daily diet of pablum from the corporate news media.

Glenn Greenwald’s Blog at Salon.com

A blog that is gaining notoriety for its dead-on interpretations of the MSM is Salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald. Whether it’s the vacuous way in which the Washington press corps reports on or doesn’t report on the most pressing issues of the day or taking the wind out the various rumors, half-truths, or outright lies that end up becoming conventional wisdom in the D.C. pipeline, Greenwald is like Bruce Lee, expertly karatechopping his way through the nonsense that makes up of much of the mainstream news media. Greenwald holds no punches and makes for an entertaining read as well. Greenwald was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York, but his take on the media, the political hubris of the present administration and its cheerleaders, and our culture in a post-9/11 universe in general come from someone with a firm grasp and knowledge of the American and political landscape. His take on the NYT’s David Brooks’ defense of ABC’s Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos’ recent performance during the Clinton/Obama debate is frighteningly true, but Greenwald’s brilliance is that he is able to take Brooks’ defense of Gibson and Stephanopoulos’s obsession with “gotcha” journalism, and wring out deeper truths. As he so pointedly observes in his blog:

The reason the establishment press fixates on these adolescent themes has nothing to do with what “Americans” want. It has everything to do with the fact that it’s what these journalists always do; it’s what they’re programmed to do; and, at this point, it’s all the empty and slothful media stars know how to do.

Critically, they’re not just assaulting Obama (and, before him, Clinton and Edwards) with randomly selected petty trash. It’s purposeful and familiar: all of these Drudgian paper cuts are intended to expose Obama as an exotic, bizarre, effete, vaguely American-hating elitist who is out of touch with Regular Americans and plagued by a personality so unlikable that you can’t possibly vote for him even if you agree with him on all of the issues — just as was true for virtually every national Democratic leader before him. All of this happens while the media reverence for John McCain and his character, “strength,” likability and integrity grow — far beyond even the affection they acknowledge they have long harbored for the amiable war hero, George W. Bush, and which is obligatorily directed at the canonized Ronald Reagan.

Greenwald is one of those writers whose throwaway lines elicit a nod of recognition from his readers. Greenwald has also written three must-read books How Would A Patriot Act (2006), A Tragic Legacy (2007), and the recently published Great American Hypocrites. Smart and aggressive in his search for getting at the truth, Glenn Greenwald’s blog is a must-read for any progressive surfing online.